The Scientific Witch
by ShatteredHeart98
Summary: After being rescued from a life of scientific experiments, Ashlin, a witch genetically modified to be the best of the best is rescued by Commander Takei. After being passed into the hands of Sakamoto, Ashlin becomes a part of the 501st wing. But Ashlin has been made to be a killing machine and both her and the other Strike Witches struggle to come to terms with her differences.


**Strike Witches**

**The Scientific Witch**

_**Chapter One**_

_**Salvation**_

Commander Takei laid her hands flat on her mahogany desk, leaving the papers to blare at her beneath her nose as she lowered her head and closed her eyes. She had had enough of the long, restless day. No more running around. No more filling out paperwork. No more calling the higher-ups.

No more.

She yawned and raised one hand to sift it through her dark brown hair. She caught a tuft and held it tightly, opening her eyes again as she stared down at the final paper in front of her. This one was staying in her mind for a phone call had followed immediately after she had pulled it from its 'restricted' light brown folder. One of those much higher in charge had given her some very important follow-up information that shed more light on the confusing and shocking situation printed on the single white slip of paper.

_"We have lost control over them," he had said, the pain of his hurt pride clear in his deep voice._

_ Commander Takei, still quivering about the fact that she was speaking to a man of very high stature in the army, quickly answered as formally as she could. "To whom are you referring, sir?" She swallowed. She had two stresses now. She was speaking to a man with the power to quite abruptly end her career, and she was also facing a situation of considerable danger for herself and her Witches if she had read the paper accurately._

_ She only hoped that the document she had just read would somehow be resolved without violence, but that was looking unlikely, especially with the grave voice that spoke to her._

_ "I am speaking about the band of scientists I hired to work in the Strike Witch laboratories a little off of our home base." He sighed and the Commander could almost hear his thoughts pondering noisily in his short pause. "The Scientists is what we called them and they were an elite group of men and women that promised to help us develop a weapon strong enough to end the war… or at least give us a favourable advantage."_

_ The Commander sucked in a breath. That part had been left out of the documentation. It had not referred to this 'project' that The Scientists were working on as a weapon. "With all due respect, sir, wasn't this exactly what occurred with Mr Maloney?" She couldn't help but jab him with guilt. This man that she was speaking to had allowed a similar mistake to be made. What had he expected?_

_ The man sighed again, heavily, and spoke in a sad voice. "I know I was wrong to put my trust into them, but you know as well as I do, being on the front lines with your own Witches, that if we don't make some drastic changes and take some chances then we will lose this war."_

_ Her throat tightened. It was true. She had seen too many Witches die to deny the fact. "You're right," she said, "but because of this chance, this girl mentioned in the document – the 'project' as you say – is suffering and may be in danger."_

And that was the part that was staying with Commander Takei. In the document it was mentioned numerous times that the project The Scientists were working on – the so-called 'weapon' or 'power' that would end the war – was a human girl being injected with vast amounts of magic to make her the most powerful Witch.

The man on the phone had not denied it, and it was evident in the way he spoke that he felt terrible for letting it all happen without his knowing. Then he gave the orders: Commander Takei, being the closest to the laboratories where The Scientists were situated, would bring the girl back to her base safely and protect her until she could be sent to another Strike Witch Wing that had room for another member. Her own Wing did not have that room, but Takei was not worried about that for the moment, nor was she worried about the mission itself at all.

She was worried about the sort of life the girl would lead as a Strike Witch.

_"So her power will still be used despite everything?" She was done with pleasantries as she spoke to the man. She was too angry and confused._

_ He calmed her down quickly with reassurance. "I do not want things to turn out this way for her, Commander. Not at all. However, you must understand that, from what we have learned from our own undercover soldiers, the girl knows nothing else but battle. She has been trained for it and it is quiet clear that she will not know how to live without using her power."_

_ The Commander was not so convinced. "What if she can live a life as a normal girl?" she asked. "Wouldn't she deserve it, then?"_

_ "Of course," he said. "I have already considered this and I have decided to leave the decision to you, Commander. You will test her and see how she lives and thinks and I will let you chose the path for her – or let her herself if she is well enough to make that decision."_

_ "Me?" Commander Takei was taken aback, but realised after a moment that she liked the idea. Not because it gave her power and not because she thought she was wise enough to decide, but because she was confident she would be able to leave the girl with a life she deserved because she knew what it was like to live a life silently tortured and afraid._

And so the conversation ended, and her mission officially began.

She was to rescue the girl, arrest The Scientists, and raise the girl on her base until she could decide what sort of life she would be safe enough to lead.

"Ashlin Rose, Project: Scientific Witch. Commencing research tests. Date: nineteenth of January." The doctor scribbled down the notes he spoke aloud on a clipboard, glancing up at the girl in the tank before him with a blank face. He stared at her and she stared back, wondering how he could even look at her when he was about to put her through excruciating pain.

He turned away without a smile, without a word, and without another glance, and it all began again.

Volts shot through her body, charging her blood and making her scream. She swallowed the water infused with magic and gagged. Her hands clapped against the glass around her, but the men and women outside, the lab-coats that wore no expressions, simply went about their work as though nothing were happening.

But Ashlin Rose, Project Scientific Witch, was used to it.

"… and increase the voltage. Then get the injections ready."

She could just make out another voice as it barked orders. She closed her eyes, willing it all away. This is how it went. They shocked her all day, then she was pulled from the tank and poked and prodded, filled with magic. The voltage was to make her angry – to exercise her rage as they said to each other, and the magic being pumped into her was to give her a better outlet. The two went hand in hand.

She knew what it all meant. Rage and magic, the essence of power for a Witch. She knew they were trying to make her the ultimate Witch, and she unfortunately felt that they were succeeding. Since they had taken her from her home, a place she barely remembered, all she felt was anger and fear, and the magic only made it worse like water that bubbles as it boils. She wanted to kill them all and she would if she had the chance.

She was held in place by a number of painful vices, naked and fragile. The electric shocks went on for hours until they pulled her out of the tank, dazed and barely conscious, to inject her with more and more magic. It wasn't natural, it wasn't safe, and it wasn't fair. It made her a person she didn't want to be.

As the minutes blurred together, her conscious began to waver. She could just make out the white coats hovering outside of the tank. There were two levels of them – on the lower level they circled her tank, pressing buttons attached to its circuit board, arguing over everything, and writing things down on their numerous clipboards. On the top level just up two small steps were the computers on which they took monitored her and made the decisions that were argued about below. It was all very boring and so very irritating. They all worked as though they had nothing better to do than torture a young girl and ruin her life as it had been for so long.

Months had passed since she had been brought there with a sack over her head, hands tied, feet bound together. She had been so scared and there were no calming words or blackmail offers. She was knocked out again, woke up strapped to a bed with tubes hanging out of her arms, then she was in the tank. The tank, the worst place in the world, yet the only place she had known for so long.

She closed her eyes. She didn't want to see them. They made her nauseous, sick to her stomach, and she wanted to pound on the glass the more she watched them. None of them were kind. None of them treated her like a normal human being. Although, she did wonder herself if she was even human anymore. Maybe she was just a being made of magic considering the amount they pounded into her.

As darkness leaked into her vision she began to calm down. She would be sleeping soon and the day would end quickly. It would be over at least for a little while.

Someone screamed and her eyes shot open. Fear gnawed at her. A woman was standing with her hands up, facing a doorway that she couldn't see from the tank. She strained herself to see, but it tightened the vices around wrists and ankles and she winced. She watched what she could. More of the scientists were alert now, all facing the doorway, some of them dropping their clipboards to the floor, others quickly working at their computers, looking as fearful as she was beginning to feel.

What the hell was going on? She couldn't tell, and the darkness was still threatening to take her into its depths. She was closing her eyes again… She needed to sleep…

"I am Commander… Takei… Strike Witches…"

That was all Ashlin Rose, The Scientific Witch, could hear as she fell into unconsciousness.

Ashlin Rose woke up in the bed she always did. She couldn't feel the tubes in her arms because she was so used to them, but she knew they would be there. She didn't want to see them. She didn't want to see the glowing magic that wormed its way up the tubes and into her body.

She stared at the ceiling, blinking, breathing, _existing. _She could hardly remember the beginning of the day with the shock treatment. Odd, but good. She didn't have to remember the pain.

Wait… The ceiling was higher than usual. How strange.

She blinked. It was different. She clenched her fists and couldn't feel the stronger pumping of the magic as it coursed through her. She moved her head, ignoring the flare of pain in her skull and saw, with a yelp of shock, that her arms were free of tubes apart from one, but it was a harmless IV drip. Where was the magic? Where were the scientists?

"Ahh, I see you've woken up at last," a friendly voice said.

Heart thundering in her chest, Ashlin shot bolt-upright in bed, her hands instinctively moving to her sides as though to protect herself. She stared across the room at this woman as she walked in properly through an open door, a mug of steaming tea in one hand and a wad of papers in the other.

The woman smiled and slowed her pace, stopping a metre or so from the bed. "Everything is alright, Ashlin," she said gently, a kind smile gracing her lips. "There is no need to be alarmed at all. In fact, you should be very happy. You're no longer in possession of The Scientists. You're safe now."

"Where?" Ashlin asked quickly, not trusting that anywhere could be safe. That didn't sound possible. She was confused.

The woman seemed to understand. "You're at my Strike Witch base. I am the Commander, Junko Takei. You can call me Junko, of course. I don't mind at all." She eyed the wooden chair at Ashlin's side and nodded her head towards it. "May I sit?"

Ashlin stared at the chair. This girl must have been sitting there the entire time, watching over her. The thought was extremely comforting and her chest warmed. She had a brief memory of her life from before, but it was hardly more than a flash. Nonetheless, she was already liking this woman. "Yes, please sit," she said politely. She remembered her manners. That was something that had always stayed with her.

Smiling, Junko rested down on the chair again, sat her mug on the bedside table, and sat forward to speak to Ashlin. She laid the papers on the floor. They could wait.

"I know this must be a lot to take in. Would you like to hear it all now? We can always wait a little while and ease the information in."

"No, please tell me now," Ashlin said, squirming beneath the thin covers of the bed. As if she could wait. Hope was blooming inside of her, a rare thing. She couldn't wait and risk it.

"Alright then," Junko said, sitting back a little. "I suppose I will begin with your story and why it all started."

Ashlin nodded. "Why me?" She re-spoke the question she had always asked herself.

"Those scientists were hired by the Strike Witch leaders to create a weapon that we could wield against the Neuroi," she said, watching Ashlin carefully. "You know about the Strike Witches and the Neuroi, right?"

Ashlin nodded. "I remember."

"Good. The man who hired them, the leader of the agreement between the Strike Witches and the scientists, was unaware that those men and women doing the experiments would be using a human. He had no idea that the weapon was, in fact, a human."

Ashlin's stomach twisted and she felt ashamed and embarrassed. She turned away. "Me," she said quietly.

Junko leaned forward and took her hand. The touch was so sudden that Ashlin went to recoil but stopped. The hand was so soft and gently. She let the woman hold onto her as tears welled up in her eyes. It was safe to cry now, and she knew that this woman was there for her.

"It was not your fault," Junko said seriously. "You were chosen because you have a strong hold over magic. You can use vast amounts of it, and that is why they took you." She shook her head, disgusted. "What they did was inexcusable and that was why I was sent to rescue you with my Witches. I was asked by the man that hired them once he found out about the truth, that you were the weapon. And now, here you are." She waved her arms around, smiling again. "You're at my base, with my Witches, and you are safe here. The scientists have all been arrested. They won't hurt you again."

Ashlin couldn't stop crying now that she had started, but she needed to say something. "Th-thank you…" she managed before she burst into angry, sad, and relieved tears. Junko sat on the side of the bed and pulled her into a comforting hug, holding her close as the hidden emotions of months and months of pain were finally released.


End file.
